"The place where the heart of a nation sighs"

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Posted: Thu Apr 09, 2009 12:25 pm

In just over a fortnight Australians and New Zealanders will gather to commemorate Anzac Day.

We honour the courage, compassion, comradeship and devotion that shone out amid the blood and horror of the battlefields in Turkey, Palestine, France and Belgium, and would later carry another generation of Anzacs through other trials in the Middle East, Europe, and Asia.

But remember too that to another nation Gallipoli is sacred ground, where tens of thousands died in defence of their land, and whence a nation-builder rose to greatness.

TO A TRAVELLER

Stop traveller! Unbeknownst to you this ground
You come and tread on, is where an epoch lies;
Bend down and lend your ear, for this silent mound
Is the place where the heart of a nation sighs.

To the left of this deserted shadeless lane
The Anatolian slope now observe you well;
For liberty and honour, it is, in pain,
Where wounded Mehmet laid down his life and fell.

This very mound, when violently shook the land,
When the last bit of earth passed from hand to hand,
And when Mehmet drowned the enemy in flood,
Is the spot where he added his own pure blood.

Think, the consecrated blood and flesh and bone
That make up this mould, is where a whole nation,
After a harsh and pitiless war; alone
Tasted the juice of freedom with elation.

Necmettin Halil Onan

Posted: Sun Apr 19, 2009 1:07 pm

But always there is the memory of loss, sadness, and regret.

ANZAC COVE

There's a lonely stretch of hillocks
There's a beach asleep and drear:
There's a battered broken fort beside the sea.
There are sunken trampled graves:
And a little rotting pier:
And winding paths that wind unceasingly.

There's a torn and silent valley:
There's a tiny rivulet
With some blood upon the stones beside its mouth.
There are lines of buried bones:
There's an unpaid waiting debt:
There's a sound of gentle sobbing in the South.

Leon Gellert

Posted: Sun Apr 19, 2009 9:40 pm

R.I.P. my grandfather, Companion of the Queens Service Order

Posted: Tue Apr 21, 2009 9:17 pm

My sympathies, Esq.

Here is what Mustapha Kemal Ataturk, statesman and nation builder, who led a Turkish force at Gallipoli, said at Anzac Cove in 1934. For nobility of spirit I think it has few equals.

Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives; you are now lying in the soil of a friendly country.
Therefore rest in peace.
There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours.
You, the mothers, who sent their sons from far away countries, wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace.
After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well.

Master of Master Baiters Joined: 06 Feb 2008 Posts: 720

Lest We Forget

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